Thursday, January 17, 2019

Our
vocation, through Baptism, as faithful disciples and soldiers of Christ, in the
heart of the world, within the human family, in the heart of the Church, is to
be love. [cf. Jn.13:34; 15: 12-14; 1 Thess. 4:9; 1 Jn.2:7-10; 3:23; 2 Jn.
1:5-6]

An Indigenous elder speaks gently to
his grandson: “There are two wolves inside everyone which are always at war
with each other. One of them is a good wolf and represents things like
kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf and represents things like
greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops to think about this for awhile, then
he looks up and asks: “Grandfather, which wolf wins the war?” The grandfather
quietly replies: “The one that you feed.” [1]

While
it is easy to assume the enemies of faithful disciples of Christ constantly
feed the bad wolf, we need to be humble enough, honest enough with ourselves
about which wolf we are feeding.

We may
fall into satan’s trap of suggesting we can get away with just giving the bad
wolf tidbits, rather than a full meal. The danger is the bad wolf, like satan
his mentor does when we give into any temptation, becomes more aggressively
demanding and fear can cause us to abandon caring for the good wolf and just
feeding the bad one.

We need
to be nourished with the sacraments, reflecting upon Sacred Scripture with
priority to the Gospel, with the Holy Rosary and other times of prayer, using
sacramentals, reading the lives of the saints and their writing, in a word
being nourished through all such means by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Some,
rightly, will challenge the above and note that in the lives of the saints we
see that even when they were totally faithful to the will of God in the present
moment, even when they were filled with faith, lived truly holy lives – or
perhaps because of their very fidelity – suffering was seemingly never absent,
rejection, persecution, sometimes even the profound pain of the dark night of
the soul, the profound absence of God, all this they experienced as we do.

There
is no quick fix, no magic elixir, nothing that exempts faithful followers of
Christ from the Cross, however we can trust that the will of God, always an
invitation never an imposition, only takes us/invites us, where His grace will
sustain us.

We are
mistaken to understand love as primarily or only a feeling, likewise with
faith, hope, forgiveness of self and others.

Pure,
true love is an act of the will, a choice expressed in words and actions, so
are faith, hope, charity, kindness, patience, etc., and when such virtues are
lived out when the night is at its darkest, the burden-bearing of the actions
of others at its heaviest, when the enemy and his human cohorts are most
fiercely attacking, that is when the choice to love, to believe, to endure, to
be faithful in the precise moment we are living, is truly to be living
holiness, radiating the Light of Christ.

We
should rejoice in and be comforted by the very fact we are living in these
times because the Trinity granting, us life and grace in these times, shows the
love and confidence God has in us to be His faithful disciples and witnesses in
these very days.

Pope
Francis, who understands very well the reality we are living in has given us a
wonderful pastoral gift of encouragement, his call to holiness in the modern world:
“REJOICE AND BE GLAD” (Mt 5:12), Jesus
tells those persecuted or humiliated for his sake. The Lord asks everything of
us, and in return he offers us true life, the happiness for which we were
created. He wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and mediocre
existence. The call to holiness is present in various ways from the very first
pages of the Bible. We see it expressed in the Lord’s words to Abraham: “Walk
before me, and be blameless” (Gen 17:1)…… The Holy Spirit bestows holiness in abundance
among God’s holy and faithful people, for “it has pleased God to make men and
women holy and to save them, not as individuals without any bond between them,
but rather as a people who might acknowledge him in truth and serve him in
holiness”….. Let the grace of your baptism bear fruit in a path of holiness.
Let everything be open to God; turn to him in every situation. Do not be
dismayed, for the power of the Holy Spirit enables you to do this, and
holiness, in the end, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life (cf. Gal
5:22-23). When you feel the temptation to dwell on your own weakness, raise
your eyes to Christ crucified and say: “Lord, I am a poor sinner, but you can
work the miracle of making me a little bit better”. In the Church, holy yet made
up of sinners, you will find everything you need to grow towards holiness. The
Lord has bestowed on the Church the gifts of scripture, the sacraments, holy
places, living communities, the witness of the saints and a multifaceted beauty
that proceeds from God’s love, “like a bride bedecked with jewels” (Is 61:10)……
At times, life presents great challenges. Through them, the Lord calls us anew
to a conversion that can make his grace more evident in our lives, “in order
that we may share his holiness” (Heb 12:10). At other times, we need only find
a more perfect way of doing what we are already doing: “There are inspirations
that tend solely to perfect in an extraordinary way the ordinary things we do
in life”. When Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên van Thuân was imprisoned, he
refused to waste time waiting for the day he would be set free. Instead, he
chose “to live the present moment, filling it to the brim with love”. He
decided: “I will seize the occasions that present themselves every day; I will
accomplish ordinary actions in an extraordinary way”……. I would like these
reflections to be crowned by Mary, because she lived the Beatitudes of Jesus as
none other. She is that woman who rejoiced in the presence of God, who
treasured everything in her heart, and who let herself be pierced by the sword.
Mary is the saint among the saints, blessed above all others. She teaches us
the way of holiness and she walks ever at our side. She does not let us remain
fallen and at times she takes us into her arms without judging us. Our converse
with her consoles, frees and sanctifies us. Mary our Mother does not need a
flood of words. She does not need us to tell her what is happening in our
lives. All we need do is whisper, time and time again: “Hail Mary…”

Thursday, January 10, 2019

So you, my child, be strong in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you heard from me through many
witnesses entrust to faithful people who will have the ability to teach others
as well. Bear your share of hardship along with me like a good soldier of
Christ Jesus. To satisfy the one who recruited him, a soldier does not
become entangled in the business affairs of life. [2Tim.2-4]

Soldiers,
like all military personnel, are sworn to protect the people, to do battle
against the enemy, even to laying down their lives.

These
words of St. Paul are applicable in our own day. He is not calling us to be
soldiers in terms of methods used by the military to defeat an enemy, for
example the use of lethal force. He is calling us to fidelity to our baptismal
oath, fidelity to the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel of Life and Truth, fidelity
to our vocation within and flowing from our baptismal vocation to be
proclaimers of the Gospel with our lives without compromise while living within
this world, this culture.

Being a
good soldier means trusting and living out this from Christ’s prayer to His
Father at the last supper: I speak this
in the world so that they may share My joy completely. I gave them Your word,
and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than
I belong to the world. [Jn.17:13 ff.]

People
often say how overwhelmed they feel under the weight of this culture of
darkness and death. To borrow a military phrase, we all are suffering “battle
fatigue.”

Not
least because: Our enemies are trying to
wipe us off the face of the earth, literally. Our enemies are not at the gates;
they are inside the gates. The enemies of Christianity are trying to ensure
that Christianity has no future. [1]

A major
cause of battle fatigue is the very human, and understandable, need for
acceptance by others, added to which for some Catholics and other Christians,
there is a persistent mythology that in ages past we were not only accepted but
admired, even dominant.

There
are a few crumbs of truth in that mythology, but just a few. Martyrdom, by
blood, oppression, rejection, is more normative than acceptance and dominance.

All
Christ’s teachings on the Church are teachings about the power of littleness:
the mustard seed, the leaven, a cup of water, salt, light, ordinary acts of
charity such as giving food to someone who is hungry, the grain of wheat: [cf. Mt. 5:13-16; 10:42; 13: 31ff; 25:31ff;
Jn. 12:24]

If we
do seek to live lives of faith, hope, love, peace, active charity, with a sense
of fulfillment, as both good soldiers of Christ and a bulwark against the
culture of darkness and death it means taking up our cross each day, following
Christ and as St. Paul teaches, we are called to make up in our lives: …. what is lacking in the afflictions of
Christ on behalf of His body, which is the church…[Col. 1:24], the ‘what is
lacking’ is our willingness to take up the Cross each day, follow Jesus, be in
every moment one with Him.

What
makes this difficult is what we take in from the surrounding culture of
darkness and death through various media, the music we listen to, the books we
read, etc.

Garbage
in, garbage out.

We have
the treasuries of Sacred Scripture, access to Holy Mass, Holy Communion,
Confession, adoration, the assistance of Our Lady, the Angels, to music, art,
literature which uplifts.

Beauty
in, beauty out.

It is
our choice.

Do we
take in what vivifies or what wearies?

A human
tendency which satan uses to disrupt and discourage is having us look back at
some point in history, in the life of the Church, the nation, our family, our
own lives through frankly, as the saying goes, ‘rose coloured glasses.’

Instead
of dwelling fully in the present moment, which is the precise moment in our
lives where Christ is with us, we pine for some other moment, or regret, without
trust in Divine Mercy, some previous moment.

What a
waste of time and grace!

Our
sanctification, our deepening our union with Christ, fulfilling our vocation,
accomplishing the will of God in our lives, defeating satan, the real enemy in
this reality of war, proclaiming the Gospel of Truth and Life with our lives,
takes place in, and only in, this precise moment.

This
precise moment is both a sacred place and a threshold place. We step deeply
into this moment from the previous moment and this moment is simultaneously a
threshold into the next moment of grace.

Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to
the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
[Lk.9:62]

From
the moment of His Incarnation, through His birth, childhood, adulthood, public
life, through the desert, the garden, on the Cross, in the tomb, in His Holy
Resurrection, to this very moment Christ never looked back, never sought to
somehow go back in time for any reason, rather He dwelt in and fulfilled the
will of the Father for our redemption and to be with us in this precise moment.

He is
the Good Shepherd leading us through every moment to the eternal moment, the
unchanging yet for all eternity ever deepening moment of communion of love with
Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No
slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also
persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. [Jn.15:20]

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and
sojourners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against the soul.
Beloved, do not be surprised that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as if
something strange were happening to you. But rejoice to the extent that you
share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when His glory is revealed you may
also rejoice exultantly. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed
are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Be sober and
vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking
for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow
believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings. The God of all
grace who called you to His eternal glory through Christ Jesus will Himself
restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a
little. To Him be dominion forever. Amen. [cf. 1Pt.2:11; 4:12-14; 5:8-11]

We belong to God, and anyone who knows
God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us.
This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit. [cf.
1Jn.4:1-6]

Paul
Evdokimov reminds us of an adage which affirms: “The hour that you are living, the task that you are doing, the man
whom you are meeting in this moment,
are the most important in your life.”

The
greater reality than the reality of the war we experience is that Christ
Himself is already our victory, that greater than all the noise and hatred is
the deep silence of God, which is the sound of His loving voice.

We
dwell in moments of grace.

[1] The
Biggest Lie In the History Of Christianity, Matthew Kelly, p.61; Kakadu, LLC,
2018

Sunday, December 23, 2018

It is
the week of the O Antiphons prayed during Vespers: O Dawn, splendour of eternal light, and sun of justice, come, and shine
on those seated in darkness, and in the shadow of death.

In this
new reality of war, we do well to keep before our hearts that He who is our
Light pierces the darkness and He is the light the darkness cannot overcome.

I remember reciting the phrase about
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears in the Hail, Holy Queen, a prayer
I said often when I was growing up, and being aware at the time of the immense
suffering in the world. Perhaps it was because I was a child during World War
II or because the church talked more about suffering or because we didn’t have
a lot of money. There was a realization that heaven waited up there, that life
here was not meant to be soft and easy. [1]

For
centuries, our Jewish Brothers and Sisters, when ascending to the temple in
Jerusalem would sing-pray a series of Psalms: 119[120] to 133 [134], still
known as the psalms of ascent.They are
powerful prayers for whenever we experience the weight of being deep in any
valley of darkness, tears, fear. It is good to, at the same time, pray Psalms
134 [135]/135 [136], which are known as Alleluia psalms.

This
being the Holy Season of Advent, the season of hope, on the threshold of the
birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus, we should turn to teachings that give
hope, encouragement, strengthen faith, openness to absolute trust: in hoc signo vinces, that is, literally
‘in this sign you will conquer’. Our victory is found in Christ, Christ on the
Cross, Christ Risen, and no enemy, visible or invisible, can overcome He who is
in our midst in this moment as surely as when He first walked the earth two
millennia ago: Christ is living now! He
is teaching now, governing now, sanctifying now….[3]

The
first step in participating in Christ’s victory over the enemy, for there is
only one enemy: satan -all human
enemies are but those who do the evil one’s work -is to be grateful for the gift of our being,
at this precise moment in history, for our Loving and All merciful God, Father,
Son, Holy Spirit, creates us, gives of breath of life at the time in human
history, which is salvation history, when all grace is available, should we
chose, for us to become saints, and saints is what the human family needs,
millions of Christ Light Bearers in the darkness, millions of living, active,
icons of His love.

1. “REJOICE AND BE GLAD” (Mt 5:12),
Jesus tells those persecuted or humiliated for His sake. The Lord asks
everything of us, and in return He offers us true life, the happiness for which
we were created. He wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and
mediocre existence…. 15. Let the grace of your baptism bear fruit in a path of
holiness. Let everything be open to God; turn to Him in every situation. Do not
be dismayed, for the power of the Holy Spirit enables you to do this, and
holiness, in the end, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life (cf. Gal
5:22-23)…... 16. This holiness to which the Lord calls you will grow through
small gestures. [4]

Evil
always goes for the grand gesture.

Jesus
comes as a small child, not a great potentate; Jesus tells us it is the little
things we do with love, which are done for Him, which lead to eternal life. [Mt. 25: 31-46].

Even
the secular entertainment world cannot ignore the truth about the power of
little things done well for love of Jesus: Galadriel:
Mithrandir? Why the Halfling? Gandalf: I don’t know. Saruman believes it is
only great power than can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have
found. I’ve found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that
keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love. [5]

Faith is nothing other than the touch
of God’s hand in the night of the world, and so – in thesilence – to
hear the word, to see love. [6]

In this
21st century technology, for all the benefits, is nonetheless the
enemy of silence. Between cell phones and earbuds, people around the world
choose to flee silence and fill their ears and brains, penetrating heart and
soul, with an invasive continuum of noise. People resist turning off, even just
for a few minutes, the cell phone, the music, internet, tv, as if there is a
pervasive fear of silence.

Yet,
drawing on Pope Emeritus Benedict’s wisdom, unless we be still, unless we
embrace, at least for a few minutes the sacred gift of silence, how can we
possibly hear the Word Himself, see Love Himself?

Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed
on Jesus. "I look at him and he looks at me":….Contemplative prayer
is hearing the Word of God. ….Contemplative prayer is silence, the "symbol of the world to come" or
"silent love." Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they
are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to
the "outer" man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered,
died, and rose; in this silence the Spirit of adoption enables us to share in
the prayer of Jesus. [7]

In this
new reality of war, with battles against forces both visible and invisible, the
cacophony of noise prevents us both from hearing the Word, seeing Love, and
hearing the approach of the enemy. This refusal to be still, to listen,
fundamentally is the sin of pride: The
heart of man seeks for solutions to his problems until no solutions are left.
Then he discovers that the “I” in a sense must disappear, become totally identified
with Christ in His silent service to mankind. Yes, there are many silent steps
to take before one comes to the door of total identification. But when you
arrive there, your heart, like those of the martyrs, will receive a new burst
of love, the impulse of a heart which is finally united with the Beloved. [8]

Deep in
the stillness of the night, from a cave near a small town in an occupied
country under the boot of a foreign power, came the cry of a newborn.

The
Infant, the so long promised, desired one, God Himself, Word of God, Light to
shatter the darkness, the Redeemer, He who humbled Himself, not clinging to His
divinity but becoming a human being, in the silence of the night we experience
the touch of God, hear the Word, see love.

The cry
of this newborn Child, this Holy Child is announcement to the Father that ‘I
have come to do Your will’; it is a prayer encompassing every cry of every
human being from birth to last breath; it is a declaration to satan and his
minions the war has begun; it is an assurance to each of us we are not in the
battle alone.

His cry
is taken up by the Angels announcing His birth to the ambassadors of humanity:
poor working people, shepherds, after Mary and Joseph, the first human beings
to adore, in silence, this Child who smiles and whose smile holds the secret of everlasting life. [9]

This
Child, who seeks a room in the inn of every human heart, should we make room
for Him, this Child is our hope, He is our victory, our strength and
consolation, the binder up of wounds, the forgiver of sins, He is.

Friday, December 07, 2018

Since 1963 on the BBC, and seen in countries around the
world, the science fiction series Dr. Who has the main character travel through
time and space in a TARDIS.

The TARDIS is smaller in its exterior than in its interior,
which appears to be an expanse of a seemingly infinite numbers of rooms and
other spaces.

An apt symbol of the Church, for mostly people see the
small, limited exterior: the particular building in which we worship, the
various church institutions, religious orders, etc., rarely entering the
infinite expanse of the Church, to which we can apply that which Jesus says of
His Father’s house, our heavenly dwelling place: My Father's house has many
rooms…[Jn.14:2].

Various things such as a hurricane, a fire, a bomb can
destroy a church building, while a dearth of vocations to the priesthood,
Christ centered marriages and families leads to diminished participation in
Holy Mass, leading to the closing of parishes.

Thus, it is vital, when reflecting upon the war against and
within the Church we keep within and before our hearts: …the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. [Mt.16:18].

That as Christians we suffer, like Jesus, in union with Him,
should come as no surprise, nor cause us to have anger or lack of compassion
for those who persecute us in anyway: “But I say to you, love your enemies, and
pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly
Father, for He makes His sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall
on the just and the unjust”. [Mt. 5:44] {cf. also: Lk.6:28; Jn. 15: 18-20; Mt.
24: 1-36}

No Christian is persecuted alone.

Jesus is with us: He
fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting Me?” He said, “Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom
you are persecuting.” [Acts 9:4-5]

It is not just within the human family in general, within
individual families, nations, between nations, where anger, hatred, violence
seem to predominate in our day. This is reality, this is the reality of war
within the Catholic, Orthodox, Protectant Churches and between the Catholics,
Orthodox, Protestants as well.

Because Christ welcomes sinful, wounded human beings as
members of His Mystical Body the Church on earth it is a stark reality that the
blemishes, the sins of the members splatter upon the face of the Church.

Thus aided and abetted by satan, there are those who, within
and without the Church, are always on the lookout for reasons to disparage the
Church, to reject Christ, to ignore the Gospel.

This stark reality is not new.

It has been part of the reality of the Church, both the
reality of external persecution and internal divisions, since shortly after
Pentecost!

By way of example: a reading of the Acts of the Apostles
shows both internal sins and divisions, miracles and the transforming of lives
through proclamation of the Gospel; the book of Revelations shows both a
glorious future for the Church on earth and in heaven, and admonitions from the
Holy Spirit about weakening of faith and other internal issues, words
applicable in our own day; during the first nearly four centuries of the life
of the Church while thousands of Christians were being martyred, thousands of
men and women went into the deserts to lead lives of penance and prayer either
as hermits or in community and thus came about, through these Fathers and
Mothers of the Desert, the establishment of contemplative life which, more than
two millennia later, still flourishes; persecution by intimidation draconian
laws, and by blood continues also to our day, yet throughout the millennia we
have also seen, and see in our own day with the formation of new religious
orders and communities of consecrated lay faithful, to care for the sick, the
poor, all those who come to the field hospital of the Church; we also have
seen, from the Great Schism, to the Reformation and also a seemingly
unendingprocession of individuals
‘founding’ their own ‘churches’ that sadly millions of souls are cut off from
the fullness of sacramental life, which only can exist, such as in Roman and
Orthodox traditions, where Apostolic succession has not been broken.

Be it attempts by feudal lords or modern governments to
hamper the Church, or evil regimes such as the Communists, Nazis, Islamic
terrorists, to try and destroy the Church by martyring Christians, , no matter
the seriousness of internal divisions or the sins of Her members, clergy and
lay alike, the Church, because She is the Mystical Body of Christ on earth and
is guided and constantly vivified by the Holy Spirit, experiences the truth
that, as Tertullian said: The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.Also
animated by Holy Spirit the Church constantly embraces the grace of metanoia,
conversion of heart.

She emerges from all persecutions and scandals, renewed and
holier.

It is too easy, indeed a from of spiritual laziness, to
excuse our own tepid faith, living out of the Gospel, or abandoning Catholic
faith and praxis, by blaming the sins of others, clergy or lay.

Every personal sin wounds the entire body of Christ.

We cannot point the finger at anyone, for as Jesus
challenges to self-assumed righteous seeking to have the woman caught in
adultery stoned to death, who of us is pure enough to cast a stone at the
Church, at anyone?

St. Benedict, founder of Western Monasticism, began
something which established not just profound spiritual growth within
Christianity but cultural foundations which led to the growth of villages, then
towns, then cities, universities, hospitals, literature, science, art.

Rod Dreher, in this book THE BENEDICT OPTION, urges a
re-discovery of this great treasury not simply by the Catholic Church but by
all Christians, noting that: As our civilization seems to be going the way of
the Roman empire, more Christians among its nations are asking themselves – and
one another – how to be latter-day St. Benedicts who preserve the living faith
that gave birth to our own civilization amid empire’s fall. They are awakening
to and claiming the powerful truth conveyed in this saying: “Tradition is not
the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire.” [2]

Wednesday, November 07, 2018

A
powerful scene from the film version of The Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers,
comes to mind as a metaphor for the war we are in, a war which is simultaneously
visible and invisible, the invisible aspect being the more dangerous.

In the
scene referred to, with the focus on King Theodon, as his aide dresses the king
with armour, and the King begins his soliloquy, scenes of the advancing enemy
and of the king’s people preparing for battle, alternate with the speech in
which the most heart wrenching line is: “How did it come to this?” [1]

Given
the extent of anger, hatred, violence, disorder, anguish, fear, increasing loss
of hope within the human family, indeed, “How did it come to this?”

It has
come to this, today and throughout history, because Adam and Eve listened to
the evil one. It is all there in Genesis chapters 3-4.

We are
all bearers of the wounds of original sin.

This is
the origin of how, universally in the human family, it has come to this.

The
late Greek philosopher and theologian, Paul Evdokimov, stresses, when it comes
to human freedom, a gift willed by God for us, this freedom is at its most
‘titanic’ as the ‘power of refusing God’. He also stresses that “The hand
extended towards Christ never remains empty” [2]

St.
John Paul II teaches us that: The
analysis of sin in its original dimension indicates that, through the influence
of the "father of lies," throughout the history of humanity there
will be a constant pressure on man to reject God, even to the point of hating
him: "Love of self to the point of contempt for God," as St.
Augustine puts it. Man will be inclined to see in God primarily a limitation of
himself, and not the source of his own freedom and the fullness of good. [3]

When
Pierre Manet asserts that the word for this reality in which we are now living
is war [4], this is certainty
accurate as connected to the revealed truth the enemy of God, the hater of
Christ, the father of lies, is indeed at war with us, because he and his
minions lost the original war, lost their attempt to destroy Our Lady and Her
Holy Child Jesus: Rev.12.

The
Catechism teaches the gravest of satan’s works is the seduction leading to our
disobeying God: The power of Satan is,
nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that
he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of
God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and His
kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of
a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature - to each man and
to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength
and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that
providence should permit diabolical activity, but "we know that in
everything God works for good with those who love Him." [5]

The
armour King Theodon wears for the battle is as tissue paper compared to the
armour we are vested with in Baptism: Finally,
draw your strength from the Lord and from His mighty power. Put on the armour
of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the
devil.For our struggle is not with
flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world
rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.
Therefore, put on the armour of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil
day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your
loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet
shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as
a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all
prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. To that end,
be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones….[Eph.
6: 10-18]

Another
aspect of how it has come to this in our own day, within the human family, in
our own lives, comes from how we choose to dialogue within our selves, the
thoughts and images, the imaginings, we fill our minds with, all these setting
the stage for emotions that often lead to external words and actions.

It is a
salient truth that we become what we contemplate. Our primary contemplation
should not be the self, nor any other human being for such contemplation
inevitably leads to distorted notions of self and other. Rather the one we
should contemplate isour Divine Lord
and God, the Divine Lover of whom we are the Beloved, by trusting Jesus’ word: “….the kingdom of God is within you.”
[Lk.17:21]

A
classic 16th century work, by Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli, titled UNSEEN
WARFARE, eventually came to the attention of St. Nicodemus and St. Theophan the
Recluse, who read and endorsed the work, assuring we have this important source
for understanding the reality of the war we are engulfed in, and must do battle
in: Self-love and high opinion of
ourselves gives birth in us to yet another evil which does us grievous harm;
namely, severe judgement and condemnation of our neighbours….This evil habit or
vice, being born of pride, feeds and grows on pride; and in turn feeds pride
and makes it grow…..[6]

To be
in a church with stained glass windows, when the sunlight is pouring through
those windows, is to be our selves permeated by the multi-coloured light and
beauty. External darkness cannot penetrate any window if there is light within
the church, home, any place.

We
cannot see darkness. What we see is the absence of light.

If
there is darkness within us it is because we have rejected the light of Christ
within us and invited darkness, a.k.a satan, to take abode within our beings.

St.
Evagrios the Solitary reminds us that: …all
thoughts producing anger or desire in a way that is contrary to nature are
caused by demons. [7] True enough, however these thoughts of darkness
cannot penetrate us, nor displace the light within us unless we freely choose
to become fixated on dark, evil, bent towards self thoughts rooted in pride and
disdain for our brothers and sisters.The
resulting dialogue with self becomes communication with satan, rather than
conversation with the Holy Trinity. The resulting cacophony within us drowns
out the voice of God, indeed it becomes ever more difficult to hear Jesus
knocking at the door of our being, that He might have leave to enter and
cleanse the temple of our being. If we refuse to recognize His knock at the
door, refuse to welcome Him in to heal and restore us, then sooner or later, by
word and deed, we will give external expression to all the arrogant hatred and
violence within us.

If we
ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten and teach us, He will help us see that we are,
each of us, members of the one human family. Diverse of colour, language,
religion.

It is the heart that helps us discover
the common humanity that links us all…The free heart frees others. [8] Such a heart is offered to us by Jesus:
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. [Mt.
11:29] It is our baptismal vocation to be burden bearers for one another: Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will
fulfill the law of Christ. [Gl. 6:2] …..we, though many, are one body in Christ
and individually parts of one another. [Rm. 12:5]

The
weight of the current reality-war, of so much anger, loss of faith, disruption,
immorality, causing such pain within the human family, should not discourage
us, not cause a loss of hope, for we are baptised into, live within Christ’s
victory in His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

Let us recall that the way of human
maturation is the course of love itself, which goes from receiving care to the
capacity of offering care, from receiving life to the capacity of giving
life.To become adult men and women
means to be able to live the spousal and parental attitude, which manifests
itself in the various situations of life, such as the capacity to take on
oneself the burden of another and to love him without ambiguity. Therefore,
it’s a global attitude of the person that is able to assume the reality and is
able to enter into a profound relationship with others. Who, then, is the
adulterer, the lustful, the unfaithful one? It is an immature person, who has
his life for himself and interprets situations on the basis of his own
wellbeing and his own contentment. [Pope Francis Oct.31.18]

Two
images of the power of one person, fictional admittedly, yet symbolic, and one
person in ‘real life’, as the saying goes, stand as example of what we, in
union with Christ, can accomplish: The first is Gandalf, standing on the stone
bridge, confronting the creature from the deep, and declaring: “You shall not
pass!” [9]In his song-poem, Democracy,
Leonard Cohen starts with: It’s coming
through a hole in the airFrom those
nights in Tiananmen Square[10]…an
event perhaps not remembered by many, but vivid still for those of us old
enough to have watched it unfold, one man, standing in front of a column of
tanks, no weapon other than his personhood, his whole being saying “You shall
not pass.” [11]

[3]
DOMINUM ET VIVIFICANTEM, On The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the
World; Part II – The Spirit Who Convinces the World Concerning Sin; 3. The
Witness Concerning the Beginning: the Original Reality of Sin, 38.2; St. John
Paul, 1986, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 1996

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

As I
begin this, thousands of Hondurans, Guatemalans, El Salvadorians, Mexicans are
continuing their long trek to the US. The public claim is flight from violence,
unemployment, poverty. True as those reasons maybe it is highly unlikely this
is a truly spontaneous event.There is
manipulation of these people in the shadows. This and other harsh realities
call for deep and prayerful concern for the present situation and future of the
human family.

I write
the essay which follows, because of what is so widespread within the human
family: anger, discrimination, individual-mob-state violence. Anxiety and
despair dominate, and of all religions Christianity, more than any other, is
under constant assault: in democratic countries by government and media, in others,
persecution by blood. As I did the final edit, this has proven to be much, much
longer than anticipated so is divided into sections. Also, though not my
custom, while I research before writing, this time, given the urgency of the
topic, I am including references to quotations and recommended book resources I
have used as research.

More
than anything else flowing, from this is: my urgent plea we reflect, ask the
grace needed, so that in our suffering, no matter the cost, we become authentic
witnesses to Christ and with Him become ever more compassionate. Should we fail
to do so we shall all find ourselves overtaken by a global, human, catastrophe
beyond imaging.

Mass
illegal migration is the hundreds of thousands of people pouring into the
countries of western Europe and North America. The established populations of
these countries are understandably overwhelmed, and seeing the free housing,
food, medical care offered these illegal newcomers, feel ever more the weight
of their own strained resources to care for their families.

Left
leaning politicians, intellectuals, tv pundits, - the elites - compound the
stress by poorly articulated reasons why the newcomers should be so generously
accommodated. At the same time these elites, who tend to be high income earners
and thus virtually immune to the stresses on ordinary people, assert those who
object to this lavishness to the illegals as hardhearted rightist populists,
less then true citizens/Christians, translation: less human. This extreme
rhetoric only adds to the mounting confusion, righteous fury, of ordinary
people.

There
are many causes of this global spread of anger, violence, anxiety, despair
within the human family: ever higher taxes, yet infrastructures continue to
crumble, affordable housing is lacking, gang violence is out of control, border
security is virtually non-existent, add on the ever increasing cost of food,
fuel, housing, medical care, schooling, the dearth of stable employment, the
war against faith and family, by the elites and we see anger, frustration,
despair weighing ever more heavily on ordinary citizens.

The
tone deafness by mostly leftist elites is a major factor in the rise of
so-called populism throughout the world.

If, as
priests and bishops, we are to encourage people, in the midst of the extreme
stress of life today, to live out the Gospel, in particular Christ’s call to
active-compassionate-love, [cf. Mt. 25:31-46] then we need to live out this
from the Second Vatican Council:Led by the Spirit of the Lord, who anointed
the Saviour and sent Him to evangelize the poor, priests, therefore, and also
bishops, should avoid everything which in any way could turn the poor away.
Before the other followers of Christ, let priests set aside every appearance of
vanity in their possessions. Let them arrange their homes so that they might
not appear unapproachable to anyone, lest anyone, even the most humble, fear to
visit them. [1]

Within
all the dissension in contemporary social and political life, there is one ray
of hope: the rise of moderate populism [2] which engages people to bring back
right order into the life of our countries.

Again
it must be stated that it is the tone deafness of elites to the real concerns
of real people about all that is happening in the world today which intensifies
the anxiety and discouragement, the anger, so as a human family we no longer
see, speak, hear, reflect, make choices based upon people, that is upon every
human being, for we all are children of God, brothers and sisters, one family
created in His image and likeness.

Increasingly
our seeing, speaking, hearing has become a reflexive response that sets the
mind, the emotions, on autopilot hence: all immigrants are potential terrorists
or violent criminals, all politicians are only concerned about themselves, all
elites utterly disdain the rest of us and seek to impose their agenda on us.

More
important than any writing, my primary priestly mandate, a mandate also for
every baptized person, is to pray for every human being on earth, irrespective
of their race, religion, or no religion, social status, regardless be they
friend or enemy. A mandate given by Jesus: You
have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your
enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute
you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for He makes His sun
rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the
unjust. [Mt.5:43-45]

As Our
Lady tells us at Fatima, applicable still in our day: "I am the Lady of the
Rosary, I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and ask for
pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is
already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary.
Let them continue saying it every day. Fly from riches and luxury; love poverty
and silence; have charity, even for bad people. "

All
freedom comes from God, for He Himself breathes life into us and endows us with
free will.

Exercise
of freedom means mature, intelligent reflection upon the options, and a clear
understanding of the consequences, and potentially unintended consequences, of
the choices we make. This obligation of mature responsibility in the exercise
of freedom is incumbent upon leaders in the realms of society, politics,
religion, media, economics, the arts, medicine, science etc., as well.

We must
believe, trust, live out the truth as Jesus tells us: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what
can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain
cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel
basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.” [Mt.5:13-16] It is the call to preach
the Gospel with our lives without compromise.

Pierre
Manet notes something applicable not just to the situation in France, but to
all the situations around the world causing ordinary people to be so angry,
frightened, despairing: The word that
fits the new reality is war. A war
against us has been declared and is happening. [3]

There
is a well of anger people keep going to, drawing out buckets of hatred,
frustration, discouragement and all the social divisions and chaos that flow
therefrom. This is of immense danger, global war danger, for the entire human
family.

As Jean
Vanier expresses it: Among humankind,
the family represents that basic social unit. However, everywhere we look, the
basic place of belonging is breaking down……everywhere more and more people are
frightened of commitment. And why is this happening? I believe it is because
out Western societies have placed the power, rights, and needs of the
individual abovethose of the group.
[4]

Only a
radical, rooted in Jesus Christ metanoia, that is conversion of our own hearts,
as individuals, societies, religions, will open for us the door of hope, allowing
us to see hope is not a thing desired, but a person encountered who, Himself,
is our hope, because He alone is the way we seek, the truth we need, the love,
the life we hunger for. Opening the door is not that difficult since we already
know He is here: “Behold, I stand at the
door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will enter his
house and dine with him, and he with Me.” [Rev.3:20 & Lk. 24:13-35]